Need a No-Regrets Tee? Make Sure to Prepare Your Graphic First

Creating artwork for t-shirt printing is different from other forms of graphic design. It requires some know-how on the part of the designer as well as the collaborative guidance of a professional printing company. A designer who does not take the guidelines of t-shirt printing to heart would likely end up producing artwork that’s incompatible for t-shirt printing.

Designers should keep these things in mind to avoid wasting time and effort creating and sending an unusable design to a print shop in Dallas.

Plan Your Color Schemes

Planning your color palette first can help you avoid overlooking design details. When making an apparel order from scratch, it’s best to simulate every garment and ink color combination by producing mock-ups in advance to proof the results on the screen.

Additionally, it’s important to determine if your artwork is the same color as your shirt. See to it that there’s maximum contrast between the shirt and ink color. It will ensure that people can easily see the t-shirt artwork, even from a distance.

Regardless of the colors, however, remember to include them to your swatches palette and save them in a separate folder. They can serve as presets, which help you paint each design area and ensure that you stay faithful to the original rendering.

Scale Your Artwork in Actual Size

Apart from taking the time to compare the design to the actual shirt, it’s essential to measure the size of each component of the artwork and scale it accordingly. Scaling your design to actual size ensures that your graphic reflects accurately on the t-shirt. Do not forget to share your vision and measurements when you deliver your proposed design to your printing company.

Use a Vector Graphics Editor

If you can control how you create your graphic assets, do so in vector format using a good vector graphics editor. Unlike image formats like BMP, GIF, and JPG, vector graphics do not consist of a grid of pixels. You can resize the file indefinitely without compromising print quality. This is helpful especially if you’re using the same artwork for media with different dimensions, such as postcards, banners, billboards, and business cards. Each one of them will print clearly without the pixelation or blurriness associated with regular image formats.

Convert Your Text to Outlines

Sometimes, an artwork uses a custom-designed or obscure font. A printer that does not recognize the font will most likely use a substituted font in your design, which is the last thing you want to happen. So, make sure to change the font to an outline. By doing so, the printing company’s computer will identify the artwork as a design and print accordingly.

By planning your color schemes, scaling your artwork in actual size, using a vector graphics editor, and converting your text to outlines, you can minimize and even prevent, unnecessary production delays due to artwork errors.

If you’re looking for a print shop in Dallas to print your design for business or personal use, rely on the t-shirt printing services of Precision Reprographics. Our press can print in any color with no maximum colors or minimum orders. On top of our custom t-shirt printing services, we also offer a wide range of printing services, from business card printing to large format printing.